Chapter Thirty-Five: Claiming the Territory

The defeat of the orcish army was merely the opening act of a massacre. Once the organized orcish forces were utterly annihilated, under Sun Li’s instructions, the two great generals of Song—Ryan and Robin—launched a month-long bloody purge against the fleeing orcish remnants and the clans still loyal to the Orcish Empire throughout the Kalimdor region. As this territory was a directly governed and highly valued dominion of the Orcish Empire, the Song armies left rivers of blood in their wake. Against volleys of musket fire and bayonet charges, the defenders of any orcish clan were scattered at the first encounter, after which the carnage resembled the sacking of cities.

After a month of suppression, nine out of ten orcish strongholds were left deserted in Kalimdor, paving the way for the coming wave of human settlers. This campaign also brought Sun Li’s point tally to unprecedented heights, breaking the million mark for the first time.

Unmoved by the devastation these points represented for the orcs, Sun Li eagerly spent one million points to elevate his own strength to that of a Grand Knight. After a week of acclimation, he finally unleashed his first blade aura over ten meters in length. From then on, Sun Li truly possessed the individual might to dominate this world—yes, the personal strength to reign supreme.

Following this, Sun Li rewarded his troops with the yields of the gold mines and replenished his line infantry to full strength. Unfortunately, funds were insufficient to restore the cavalry; even the less costly spear cavalry could number only two thousand, let alone the expensive heavy cavalry. Fortunately, artillery losses were minimal, sufficient for the battles to come.

With the matter of compensation for the fallen settled, Song’s main force, now reduced to fifteen thousand, marched into Santa Loren—the former colonial capital of the Madrid Empire on the southern continent.

Under the astonished gaze of the surrounding human powers, the Song Empire entered the stage of traditional human politics for the very first time.

Holding intelligence reports describing the Song troops equipped with flintlocks and six-pounder cannons, the English governor of Caracas abandoned his plan to crush this nascent force and annex the entire southern colonies. Even after reinforcement, Caracas could muster only five thousand regulars. The English governor was confident in the combat prowess of the English Empire, but facing fifteen thousand well-armed Song soldiers, the outcome was far from certain. He suppressed his ambitions for armed aggression and sent a plea for reinforcements back to England.

Naturally, Sun Li would not let this rare opportunity to annex land slip away. With the English paralyzed, who else on the southern continent could stand against the Song Empire?

The Song army advanced in regimental formations, launching expeditions in all directions. To the settlements of “freemen,” they offered only two choices: submission or death.

At first, these unruly rabble had no intention of accepting a new overlord. Various gangs and syndicates united to clash head-on with Sun Li’s Song forces.

However, the “freemen” soon discovered that the Song troops were madmen who, marching in perfect ranks to the sound of martial music, advanced unflinching into musket range. One disciplined volley would leave the rebels so devastated they could barely recognize themselves. Witnessing these routs, Song officers often deemed a second volley unnecessary, preferring to close in with bayonets and swiftly dispatch the survivors. Battles ended quickly, and aside from those struck down in the advance, the Song suffered no further casualties.

The “freemen” soon realized these were true regulars—far more professional than the forces once commanded by Governor Amasja.

Impeccable discipline, tight formations, and fearless advance into musket fire—all these proved that the soldiers quelling their resistance were elite.

No one knew where so many well-trained, well-equipped troops had come from, but it no longer mattered to the rebels. After repeated, crushing defeats, and seeing that the Song treated humans rather decently, the black-haired, black-eyed Solomons seemed surprisingly reasonable.

Indeed, the dominant races of Europa resembled the white race of Earth, yet the continent was also home to many black-haired, black-eyed peoples, whom the whites regarded as a minority—calling them Solomons. On Europa, Solomons held no real power, serving merely as the laboring underclass. This was one reason the “freemen” of the southern colonies initially resisted; these local thugs considered Solomons compliant and easy to bully, never imagining their army could be so formidable and deliver such a drubbing.

Thus, apart from the English-controlled Caracas, the Song army conquered the entire southern continent’s human colonies with iron and blood. The once-dominant white settlers, after witnessing the might of Song, had no choice but to submit and accept forced migration to Kalimdor—a policy enacted by Song to establish and secure Kalimdor Town on its rich plains.

Minister of Internal Affairs Zhuge Liang was astonished to discover over 100,000 whites could be rounded up from the former Madrid colony. Comparing this to the population of yellow-skinned Solomons produced by the system—the so-called “Old Worlders”—he decided to reinforce Sun Li’s Mongol-inspired hierarchy for the sake of Song’s core interests.

In the Song Empire, whites were now honored as second-class citizens. Why honored? Because they could lord it over millions of third-class orcs! To be elevated from the lowest peasant to an orc overlord was, of course, a mark of distinction—or so thought Zhuge Liang and Sun Li.

With the introduction of this rigid hierarchy, the whites erupted in revolutionary fervor. Back in Europa, they had bullied the Solomons, and having come to the New World in search of fortune, they now found themselves reduced to the Solomons’ servants. How could they endure this? The answer was clear: after contributing over a thousand points to Sun Li through their ill-fated insurrection, the original Madrid settlers were finally pacified.

The unscrupulous Sun Li continued to complain that these Madrid natives surrendered far too quickly at the sight of blood, denying his imperial majesty a wealth of points.

Nevertheless, he lavished praise on Zhuge Liang. This was an excellent idea—though the points gained were fewer, it was a method easily replicated as the realm expanded. With a larger population and more dissidents, the point harvest would increase accordingly.

Thus, with the support of the unprincipled Emperor Sun Li, the Song hierarchy was smoothly implemented. Kalimdor Town was rapidly established as waves of Madrid settlers poured in. With all in readiness, Sun Li turned his gaze toward the English of Caracas, who had been ominously silent for over a month.